 Elias during a speaking engagement in Iraq, 2008. | |||||||||||||||
| No. 20, 23, 22 | |||||||||||||||
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| Position: | Running back | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born: | February 3, 1972 Lacey Township, New Jersey, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 203 lb (92 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school: | Lacey Township (NJ) | ||||||||||||||
| College: | Princeton | ||||||||||||||
| Undrafted: | 1994 | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Keith Hector Elias (born February 3, 1972) is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) and XFL. He was an All-American in high school and college where he established school, conference and national records while playing for the Princeton Tigers football team.
In high school, he earned All-American honors at Lacey Township High School. In college, he did so again for Princeton University, where he established 21 school records in football from 1991 through 1993. His college career coincided in the Ivy League with Jay Fiedler who led Dartmouth to three championships in that era, but Elias was able to lead Princeton to one co-championship. Elias and Fiedler split the League Player of the Year Awards during that era. He is the former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, called I-AA at the time) record holder for career rushing yards per game and points per game. He also established the FCS record for back-to-back games total rushing yards. He continues to hold numerous Ivy League and Princeton Tigers rushing and scoring records.
Elias was signed as a free agent out of college by the New York Giants where he played from 1994 through 1996. He served mostly on special teams. He last played in the NFL two seasons with the Indianapolis Colts in 1998 and 1999. Elias also played for the New York/New Jersey Hitmen of the now defunct XFL.